Alwaght- A Spanish judge has issued a European arrest warrant for Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont and four members of his ousted cabinet.
All are currently in Belgium, and failed to attend a High Court hearing in Madrid on Thursday.
Puigdemont's lawyer Paul Bekaert says his client would not travel to Spain where the political climate was "not good," but would cooperate with Spanish and Belgian justice.
Meanwhile, a judge in Madrid has ordered eight members of the deposed Catalan government to be remanded in custody pending possible charges over last week’s declaration of independence.
The mayor of Barcelona, Ada Colau, described it as a black day for Catalonia. “A government democratically elected at the ballot box is in jail,” she said. “There is a common front to achieve the freedom of the political prisoners.”
In Barcelona, thousands of people rallied outside the Catalan presidential palace on Thursday afternoon in a show of support for the ousted officials.
Spain has been convulsed by its worst political crisis in four decades since Puigdemont’s government held the unilateral independence referendum in defiance of Spain’s government, constitution and constitutional court.
European Union had earlier warned that "more cracks" were emerging in the bloc after the Catalan parliament declared independence from Spain.
